Display apparatus.



PATENTED MAY 26', 1903.

s. RFDE LONG. DISPLAY APPARATUS;

APPLICATION FILED APR. 18, 1900.

2 SHEETSSHEET 1.

NO MOIDELT Wtn/asses: I

, No. 728,879! PATENTED MAY 26, 1 908 S. R. DE LONG.

DISPLAY APPARATUS.

APiLIOATION FILED APR. 18, 1900.

NO MODEL- 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

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UNITED V STATES Patented May Q6, 1903.

SAMUEL R. DE LONG, OF EAST BERLIN, CONNECTICUT.

DISPLAY APPARATUS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N0. 728,879, dated May 26, 1903.

Application filed April 18, 1900. Serial No. 13,320. (No model.)

T0 to whom it may c0nccrn:

Be it known that I, SAMUEL R. DE LONG, a citizen of the United States of America,whose residence and post-office address is East Berlin, in the county of Hartford and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Display Apparatus, of which the following is a description in connection with the drawings herein referred to.

My invention relates to the general class of devices which are used for automatically displaying notices or advertisements to the public eye by bringing successively into view suitably-marked cards which may contain information in'the natu re of a guide to streets, stations, or the like, or information in the nature of advertising.

In the accompanying drawings there is illustrated a device adapted to be used on public conveyances for the purpose of successively designating stations, stopping-points, streets,or points of interest to the passengers.

The object of my invention is to producea device of this general class which will operate automatically with great precision and which may be readily adjusted for the use of any reasonable number of cards without necessitating the use of an ungainly and cumbersome device, (mechanism occupies relatively little space in the vehicle and the further object of the invention is to provide means by which the device referred to will be operated only at stated intervals, depending upon the location of the vehicle as regards its status in the trip or journey.

To this end my invention consists of the device, the details of the parts, and the combination of such parts,as are herein specified, and more fully set out in the claims.

Referring to the drawings, Figure l is a view in front elevation of the device with the casing cut in section and parts broken away to expose interior construction. Fig. 2 is an end view looking from the right of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the device. Fig. 4 is an end view looking from the left of Fig. 1, the casing being broken away. Fig. 5 is a plan view of the cards, the full lines showing the recesses in one card and the dotted lines showing the recesses of the next lower card in the series.

In the accompanying drawings the letter (t denotes a casing provided with a glazed sightopening a. A backing or frame a is adapted to secure the device as a whole in place and serve as a mount for the operating mechanism. This casing is preferably made of sheet metal and incloses the main operating parts, protecting them from dust andinjury. Centrally arranged in this casing is a supporting rod or shaft 1). This shaft is removably secured in the end portions of the frame a and provides a convenient form of support for the movable mechanism and the stationary cardguides 0. These card-guides are two in number, located at some little distance apart and form the ends of what might properly be called the card-basket. Each is provided with extensions 0, which support the rods 6 e, which serve as guides for the movable side members f of the card-basket.

On the opposing faces of the card-guide c are located blades 0 adapted to engage recesses formed in the ends of the cards and hold and guide them into proper position in the cardbasket. The side members f of the card-basket are adapted to have a limited reciprocating motion within fixed limits on the rods 6 e and are provided on their faces adjacent to the cards with a series of projections f, (which may or may not fold into the partf,) which cooperating with recesses cut in the sides of the cards control the release of the cards from the basket and deliver them singly to the conveyer, hereinafter described, at stated intervals. On the side of the members cadjacent to the sight-opening are located curved extensions p,which serve as a guide to hold the cards in positive engagement with the conveyorpockets hereinafter described. The recesses in the side of the cards are so formed and the cards are so arranged that when they are placed one above the other in the card-basket only one card can be released at each reciprocation of the side members f. To efiect this, the recesses of one card are formed so that they will exactly register with the projections f when the side members f are at one limit of their play, and the next card will have its recesses in registering position with the projections only when the side members have been returned to the opposite limit of their play. Thus it will be seen that the side members f are, in effect, a form of escapement for releasing the cards at predetermined intervals.

Rotarily mounted upon the main shaft 1) and revolving about the card-basket is a conveyer, comprising disks 9 g, which have radially-disposed arms g 9 extending beyond the card basket and forming connectingpoints for the tie-rods g, by which the two disks are secured in proper relation to each other and caused to move in unison. Arranged between these tie-rods are ribbon-like strips h, suitably formed and provided with engaging clips 72/, adapted to engage a card delivered from the bottom of the card-basket and carry it forward upon rotary movement of the conveyeruntilit has brought the card directly over the top of the cardbasket, where it is engaged by the blades 0 and falls again into the basket. The motor z, in the present case a clock-spring, is connected to the conveyer in such manner as to cause it to revolve whenever it is released.

The letter i denotes a lever provided with a handle i extending beyond the case and bearing a pawl 7c, adapted to engage and move a ratchet-wheel it upon a reciprocation of the lever. Another pawl k pivoted to the end of the conveyer, acts as a detent for the ratchet-wheel, which is connected with one end of the spring above named. It is obvious that this mechanism forms a convenient means for winding the spring.-

While a spring has been described as the motive power for driving the conveyer, I do not wish. to limit myself to such a means, as it is evident the conveyer might be driven in many waysas, for instance, by an electric motor or even from a moving wheel of the,

vehicle.

On the inner faces of the disks 9 g are arranged cam-surfaces g 9 having high and low points corresponding in number to the number of steps which the conveyor is to make to complete a single revolution. These cams are arranged in opposition to each other-that is,the high point of the cam on one disk is located just opposite the low point on the opposing cam. Rods f bearing rollsf and attached to theside members f of the card-basket,engage these cam-surfaces on the conveyor, and by this means the side membersfare caused to reciprocate as the conveyer is rotated. There is a special advantage in providing a cam at each end of the conveyer, for by so doing the movement of the members f is made positive and can be controlled to a nicety.

As'shown in the drawings,the conveyer has eight card-holders formed by the angular arrangement of the ribbon-like bands 71. and clips 71.. These holders or conveyerpockets, as they might properly be called, are so .disposed about the conveyor that one of them is always in position to receive a card from the card-basket when the second is displaying its card at the sight-opening and a third is depositing its card at the top of the card-basket. The cams are so arranged with relation to the movement of the conveyer and its several pockets that a pocket is always brought into registering position with the bottom'of the card-basket theinstant the side members f have reached one limit of their play and released a card.

To provide a suitable step by-step-movement for the conveyer a series of pins or stops Z are arranged on the outer end g of the conveyer and cooperate with a releasing-lever m to give the requisite movement to the conveyer. As in the present case there are eight pockets in the conveyer, it is necessary to have the same number of stops Z. The releasing-lever m is hinged to and receives its movement from the armature n of an electromagnet o. The spring 0' normally holds the armature and lever in position to engage a stop-pin on the conveyer-disk g. As the magnets 0 are energized by passing a current of electricity about their coils, the armature is drawn toward them and the lever m is retracted until an opening m is brought into registering position with the stop-pin Z. The lever m also'has a thumb-piece m projecting beyond the case, which may be depressed to release the conveyer when it is desirable to revolve it to any specific position in order to secure proper relative arrangement of the cards to be displayed. To secure a nice adjustment of the stops land lever m and to insure the starting of the conveyor, an adj ustable spring m having a downturned end, is arranged to engage the top of the stop-pins, and as the lever m is retracted to allow apin to pass the spring m assumes a position below the pin to be released and upon the reverse movement of the lever engages its lower side and insures its forward movement as well as a sure engagement of the next pin in the series.

It is of course perfectly obvious that the cards are to bear insignia upon both their faces, as in traveling from the bottom of the card-basket around to the top they are turned upside down.

In the present application there are no means shown for creating an electrical impulse in the magnet-coils, and as any source of supply may be used, as a battery or current from a trolley-wire, with equal effect it is not deemed necessary to specifically show or describe any special means. It is of course understood that the circuit of these coils must be closed at the proper time to cause the lever m to release the conveyer.

The operation of the device is as follows: The cards, out as above described, are arranged in consecutive order-that is, if the device is to be used on a public conveyancefor indicating the streets as they are passed, each representing two streets, are arranged in the card-basket, their number and arrangement depending upon the length of the trip and number of streets to be indicated. There are special advantages in having the cards turned upside down as they are used,

for it is evident that a vehicle making a fixed trip through a certain part of a city often returns by the same route and passes exactly the same streets on its return, in which case by this arrangement the device operates equally well traveling in either direction and needs no special adjustment at one end or the other of the route. After the card-basket has been properly filled a movement of the lever permits a single forward step of the conveyer. As the conveyer moves forward and just at the end of its movement the vreciprocating side members or escapement f are moved so that their lugs f register with the recesses in a card and the latter falls into and is received by one of the pockets of the conveyer. It is evident that two forward steps of the conveyer are necessary to bring the card into line at the sight-opening a and that two more steps are required to bring the same card into position to drop into the top of the card-basket. During each of these four steps, however, cards have been deposited in the successive pockets that have been brought into registering position with the bottom of the card-basket, so that as soon as the first card appears at the sight-opening the device will proceed to automatically show at each successive step a new card, and if the direction of the trip be reversed the proper play objects, and means for delivering said v display objects to the conveyer one at a time.

2. In combination, in a display apparatus,a rotary conveyer having means for permitting its periodic rotation, a basket having means for supporting display objects therein, said basket having stationary ends and reciproeating sides, substantially as described and for the purposes set forth.

3. In combination, in a display apparatus,a rotary conveyer,a non-rotary basket mounted in operative relation thereto, inwardly-extending projections on said basket for supporting display objects, display objects having notches for cooperation with said projections to release said objects one at a time. SAMUEL R. DE LONG.

Witnesses:

W. E. SIMoNDs, H. G. BALCOVE. 

